Nurses’ perception of privacy protection in haemodialysis

Theoretical framework: In haemodialysis, nurses tend to direct their attention towards the technical procedures, often ignoring the patients’ feelings and privacy. Objectives: To describe nurses’ perception of the protection of patients’ privacy during haemodialysis and analyse the differences based on sociodemographic variables and length of service. Methodology: A quantitative descriptive exploratory study was conducted with a sample of 452 nurses. The Escala de preservação da privacidade do cuidar em hemodiálise (Scale of privacy protection during haemodialysis) validated by the authors was used. Results: The results show that nurses believe that the protection of privacy during haemodialysis is very important. Female nurses highlighted the communication component, assigning higher importance to privacy protection care. The higher the number of years of experience, the higher the concern over privacy protection. Conclusion: The nurses, particularly female nurses, perceive «communication» and «care humanisation» to be priority dimensions in the protection of privacy during haemodialysis.